Creativity and Depression: Two sides of a coin

I collapse on the floor, I am secretly lonely, I sit in the corner with my legs pulled up to my chest and I can't feel happy anymore. Does this explains any of your symptoms? No, but maybe that's the case with any of your super creative friend. I hope not. Particularly, so many of creative heads are plagued with depression. Every nation has its own depression rate, some say 1 out of 10, some even claims 1 out of 4 suffer form some or the other form of depression.

But creatives – the writers, musicians, inventors. Dancers, scientists, architects, students and teachers or any other creative type are singled out more often when it comes to depression. How true is this and what is the link between the two? To know this we have to turn to the science of mind and human evolution.

Many evolutionists themselves suffered from this common problem. One of the examples of this is Charles Darwin. His depression even impacted his theoretical and scientific work and forced him to work towards depression as his primary work.

Originally, depression leads to lack of motivation-- could be motivation to eat, work, exercise or even sleep. Thoughts of suicide are also quite common in depression. But, how this population-hindering disorder found its way through hundreds of years of evolution and what is the ultimate link of it with creativity.

What people think about the link between the two?

Depression affects a diverse group of people, so, why particularly creative types are singled out? Where is the link? According to the psychologists and psychiatrists, major depression is amplified in those who tend to ruminate on their thoughts.

Rumination: it is the compulsive attention on the symptoms of distress. It is similar to worry but it focuses more on bad feelings and experiences from the past. Rumination is one of the major keys of thinking like a creative genius. Creative people tend to connect to even the minute details, no matter whether it's good or bad. Creatives think more than any other individual and sometimes think about what they are thinking.
Those who ruminate, tend to loop through those painful experiences more often than those who don't. Those who don't think about their thoughts may have stressful days but when they are free, they tend to forget things easily than those who overthink.

But, there are certain thinkers who are naturally drawn towards stressful events over and over again, thinking about what happened in the past and what they could have done to change it. Creative thinkers re-play events over and over again to better understand them. Consequently this process of over thinking leads to immense depression or a feeling of hopelessness, according to Susan Nolen-Hoeksema, a Yale psychologist.

Depression can hit anyone, but in creatives this state of depression lasts longer due to their innate desire to keep thinking deeply. One thing to remember here is we are talking about creative geniuses who think different because they tend to overthink. Since, creativity is all about thinking too deep, it makes sense that all these thinking may lead to manic episodes of feeling hopeless, alone, or like a failure. But, this can be the case with any normal person as well who over thinks.

Depression improves creativity?

Well, that's not what you how it is. If you are struck with depression, you tend to be more creatively active and create some genius work. On the contrary, it's the opposite creativity drives depression. Many researchers believe that depression is a balancing act of life which helps us focus on things which needs to be done and to be done in a better way. From an evolutionary point of view, depression is psychological desire to be better, to be stronger and to find ways to improve ourselves.

Once you pass through that initial stage or reasons that caused depressed feelings in you, it leads to a shift in positive thoughts that helps drive even more motivation to do more creative work. You know exactly what you have to do after combating that initial stage or symptoms of depression.